From an Instagram cake connoisseur-turned-author to one of Australia’s leading LinkedIn influencers, we found out from three trailblazing women how they’ve approached networking differently to grow their brands.

Recently, Kochie’s Business Builders and Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) hosted Building Brave Businesses: Celebrating Female Founders Rewriting the Script, a digital and in-person networking event designed to inspire and connect women with great businesses and ideas. DWEN is a free global network for women entrepreneurs of all levels, with opportunities to connect with female founders and access valuable resources to grow their businesses (click here to sign up).

Hosted by Sunrise’s Natalie Barr, the latest Building Brave Businesses event featured keynotes from three female founders who shared the stories behind their passion-fuelled, purpose-driven businesses, and how they’ve connected with audiences and communities in the process. We’ve captured some of the best insights here from DWEN members:

• Cutting-edge cake creative Katherine Sabbath on authenticity and personal branding;
• Small Business Women Australia founder Amanda Rose on the concept of ‘strategic connecting’ over networking;
• And Wedded Wonderland founder Wendy El-Khoury’s insights on growing a global brand with digital marketing smarts.

Katherine Sabbath and the power of community

Katherine Sabbath. Image: Supplied.

Whether you’ve liked one of her colourful creations on social media, or seen her bright smile pop up as a guest judge on MasterChef Australia, it’s likely you’re no stranger to Katherine Sabbath and her extraordinary dessert masterpieces.

With nearly 500,000 followers on Instagram, the high school teacher turned cake master is one of Sydney’s most-sought after food creatives. Katherine is the the author of three cookbooks, with her most recent release, Bake My Day, fresh out of the oven only last month. Now at the helm of a thriving business, premium Australian made food-colouring company Creative Cake Decorating, Katherine puts her success down to authenticity right from the get-go.

“To build a successful brand, it’s important to discover and develop your passion and your purpose,” says Katherine.

“I’m always guided by the philosophy that nobody really cares about how much you know until they know how much you care. The same goes with building a brand. A clear communication of your purpose helps you foster trust and brand loyalty.”

Katherine attributes the organic growth of her brand to her transparency with her online community. Initially bringing her colourful cakes into school to connect with and celebrate her students, Katherine’s creations have always been fuelled by her passion – rather than profit.

Another key lesson Katherine has learned is the importance of having a collaborative relationship between your brand and your community. Early on in her entrepreneurial journey, Katherine enlisted the help and guidance of her diverse community to help translate her creativity and passion into a self-sustaining business model.

“I had a lot of creative friends in that area and they really helped me kind of price my services up and they basically plugged in all of the holes in my skill set,” Katherine says, “And there were many, many holes.”

Katherine encourages other women entrepreneurs to lean on and nurture the community in their network, finding that in her experience, community has been the core of her brand. Taking advantage of both physical networking opportunities, and harnessing the power of her online presence, Katherine has built an authentic brand that’s intrinsically tied up with her personal brand.

“Do everything with authenticity because it’s exhausting to be anything other than who you are,” Katherine says.

Left to right: Katherine Sabbath, Amanda Rose, event host Natalie Barr, and Wendy El-Khoury. Image: Kochie’s Business Builders

Watch Building Brave Businesses:

Amanda Rose on why ‘strategic connecting’ is the new networking

Amanda Rose. Image: Supplied.

As one of the most influential people on LinkedIn, business mogul Amanda Rose knows a thing or two about efficient networking. Maintaining an impressive collection of successful businesses including Small Business Women Australia and Western Sydney Women, mentoring opportunities, and even a weekly Careers Column in the Daily Telegraph, Amanda wasted no time in setting the record straight- a common theme in her business philosophy.

“A lot of people think that if you’re doing something with passion and purpose, you can’t make money off it,” Amanda says. “We need to stop feeling guilty for commercialising what we do.”

In order to give your idea the best chance at success, you need to deliberately surround yourself with the right kind of people and opportunities, she says. “Whatever you do, don’t change who you are,” Amanda elaborates. “Your people will find you.”

Looking to find a deeper way to do networking, Amanda has redefined the concept, opting instead to exclusively pursue strategic connections.

“I wanted to get to know people strategically, I didn’t want to just have a chat for the sake of it with no purpose,” says Amanda. “So I created this term strategic connecting.”

Amanda is no stranger to starting, growing, and selling businesses. She attributes her ongoing success in many fields to her strategic methods of connecting. Unlike many people that may align financial opportunities with growth and success, Amanda is far more interested in spending her time connecting with people who share similar ideas and philosophies in business.

“I’ve said no to so many things that have shocked so many people because it wasn’t relevant to what I was trying to achieve,” she says. “You need to be smart about the events you’re going to, you can make money off absolutely anything as long as you’re delivering on it.”

Urging viewers to not waste 300 hours on every coffee catch-up and ‘brain picking’ session, Amanda says it is imperative that people use their networking opportunities to ask direct questions – even if that makes you uncomfortable.

“Get straight to the point,” Amanda says. “It’s not being rude, this is business.”

Wendy El-Khoury on why the DMs is where business happens

Wendy El-Khoury. Image: Supplied

While the fast-paced and over-saturated market of social media can be difficult to navigate for any brand, it has quickly become one of the most effective platforms for networking. With more than two million followers online, Wendy El-Khoury is an entrepreneur, keynote speaker and a pioneer of the wedding industry. Founder of Wedded Wonderland, a global destination wedding marketplace, Wendy has grown her thriving business from an organic Facebook page, using social media to thoughtfully target and connect with her ideal audience and industry leaders.

“When people come over to your Instagram page, they scroll once, twice, three times, and they’re either going to follow you or not,” Wendy says. “When you engage with them and you’re actually sharing content that is relevant, that’s when the follow-through happens and they will send you a message.”

While aesthetic and attention-grabbing content is important for any brand, the behind-the-scenes connections and conversations is where the most important business happens, according to Wendy.

“Media is the content and the creative and social is socialising,” Wendy says. “But who you are and what you do, 80 per cent of your time should be spent on the social part.”

To ensure your social pages are driving the right kind of traffic, it’s important they are built to reflect your business offerings.

“I had to learn that the bio was my elevator pitch,” says Wendy. “You need to ensure that your product offering is actually in your highlights, think of your social media pages as your online footprint.”

For Wendy’s business, some of her most meaningful online connections have transcended beyond international borders and industry expectations.

“When you have a local business, if you connect with someone in the States, or anywhere else, you can learn from each other,” Wendy says. “They can be your mentor.”

Echoing Katherine’s call for passion-fuelled drive, and Amanda’s emphasis on strategy in networking, Wendy’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is not complicated.

“If you don’t have a purpose, you don’t know what business you’re actually driving and what you’re delivering to your market,” says Wendy. “There is no point in you being online.”

To watch the full event for more inspiring words of wisdom from these incredible female founders, watch for free here.

For more than a decade, DWEN has brought women entrepreneurs together from around the world to help them connect with each other, scale their businesses, and ultimately succeed. Join DWEN today for free access to a global network of women entrepreneurs and valuable resources to grow your business.

This article is brought to you by Kochie’s Business Builders in partnership with DWEN.

Feature image: Kochie’s Business Builders